Loved the Follow Him Podcast for Enos - Words of Mormon with Gerrit Dirkmaat Part 1 and Part 2, shownotes here
One part that I really loved, the story of Joseph trying to pay for the printing of the Book of Mormon (Part 2 minute 14) being worried with carnal desires (Doctrine & Covenants 3:4)
"Joseph bought a farm in Harmony that was almost 14 acres with a farmhouse on it, and apparently some other outbuildings and a well, the trees are already cut down on a lot of it, so it's already farmable. He buys that 14-acre farm and house for $200. The cost of printing the Book of Mormon is 15 times Joseph Smith's entire net worth if he did own his home, which he doesn't, because he can't make the payments on his own home. To put that in our perspective today, the Lord is essentially saying that you need to come up with, in a lump sum, 15, 16, 17 times the amount of money you make annually. That seems impossible. To me, it's impossible. I would have to have an angel come to tell me to believe that I could do that."
Continuing in Part 2 skipping ahead to minute 23:30 - "He goes on to chastise Joseph pretty severely. Because Joseph had made this covenant and he'd broken it. And why had Joseph broken it? In Joseph's world, he couldn't possibly see any way that he could maintain the publication of the Book of Mormon without Martin Harris. That is impossible. And it's not like I've got people falling off the back of milk wagons everywhere believing the things that I'm saying. No one is believing me. Outside of my own family, who have no money at all, no one believes me at all. No one. I have to do this for Martin or I won't even be able to do what God wants me to do. The Lord says, "For although a man may have many revelations and have power to do many mighty works, yet if he boasts in his own strength and sets at not the counsels of God," the counsels of God told him multiple times not to take them, "and he follows after the dictates of his own will and carnal desires," this is not a reference to Joseph carnally wanting something sinful. Carnal as in earthly. Your focus was, how could I possibly pay for this? I understand why you have that focus, and as God, I told you not to have that focus. Carnal desires. “He must fall and incur the vengeance of a just God upon you. Behold, you have been entrusted with these things, but how strict were your commandments; remember also the promises that you've made: that if you did not transgress them," and then probably the biggest stinger, "Behold, how oft have you transgressed the commandments and laws of God and have gone on in the persuasions of men?" Boy, at this point in Joseph's life, it took him four years to get the plates because he just couldn't overcome all of the pressures of the world around him; and then he finally gets them and those pressures of the world are still there. Verse seven: "For behold, you should not have feared man more than God. You should have been faithful, and He would have extended His arm and supported you against all the fiery darts of the adversary, and He would have been with you in that time of trouble." So after this pretty severe chastisement, again, Joseph's still probably thinking that his soul was lost, has the Lord say to him in verse 10, "But remember, God is merciful. Repent of that which thou hast done, which is contrary to the commandment which I gave unto you, and thou art still chosen, and thou art called to the work," where Joseph learns from the mouth of the Lord he is not cast off forever. Even though he has made an enormous transgression, even though it seems the entire work of the translation of the Book of Mormon is ended and it's over and the Restoration comes to a full stop because of Joseph's actions, God is merciful."
With Corey's business, he feels sometimes like maybe he's messed up and doubts himself, that maybe he has not heard what the Lord was counseling him to do, but even if that is the case, like it was for Joseph Smith, God is merciful and God can still provide a way for us to accomplish what He has called us to do. We can trust him to help us! God is able. We are to NOT FEAR, to go forward with faith like the children of Israel, and to show our faith by being patient. We don't want the Lord to chastise us after he calms the storm and ask "Why are ye so fearful? Where is your faith?" Be calm in the storms of life and TRUST.
Also I loved Part 2 38:38 - Gerrit's answer begins on how to get to the point where life can't shake your faith - I especially liked minute 43
"The way to make faith unshaken is to focus like a laser on the Holy Spirit testifying to you that Jesus is the Christ and that Joseph Smith saw God. The way to have your faith shaken is to allow details of how God unfolds his plan to become more important than God's plan. People get shaken because I don't know, I was doing my family history and I saw that my great great-grandmother, she was married to three different men in her life, when we went to the temple I mean we sealed her to all three of those men, but I mean of course she can't be married to all three of them in the next life, so which one do you think she's actually married to? It just seems weird that we don't really know, but I found her journal and it says that she really loved her second husband more. I think that's the one. We whip ourselves into a frenzy desperately trying to figure out exactly how God is going to make everything right to the point where say on the question of sealings or marriages, people might even lose their testimonies because they can't figure out how sealings work. And the great tragedy of that is the only reason why you even have a question about who's married to who in the next life is because Joseph Smith is a prophet. The moment Joseph Smith stops being a prophet, you don't have to ask that question anymore because the answer is NOBODY, because marriage doesn't exist in the next life for any other Christian faith. Why do we believe it exists? We believe it exists because Joseph Smith's a prophet."
Some may lose faith in the church and it's teachings of the importance of temple worthiness or chastity, and doubt that a loving God would NOT allow them to be with their family forever. Family members that are LGBT or even if some of the family members are not keeping commandments or have lost faith in God, but I hope that they don't abandon Joseph Smith and the Restored Gospel over those doubts, but instead realize that the ONLY reason they HAVE a belief that in Eternal families is, like Gerrit teaches here, IS BECAUSE JOSEPH SMITH TAUGHT US THAT PRINCIPLE! If Joseph Smith isn't a prophet, then NOBODY is going to be with their family in the next life anyway, cause marriage doesn't exist. And maybe then they want to say God must not exist and they just abandon it all, and I guess that's their right to choose that option. But I am grateful to believe with ALL MY HEART in Eternal Families, in Temple covenants, in Joseph Smith, and in the MIRACLE of the Book of Mormon and it's glorious teachings of Jesus Christ and his doctrine.
